Wednesday, February 29, 2012

The Irish government has announced that it will hold a referendum on the new fiscal treaty proposed by the EU. Ireland is dependent on the Eurozone for bailouts, so a “no” vote on the treaty would have serious repercussions.

In other economic news, Portugal is on track to meet the austerity requirements for its next tranche of bailout money. In Greece, however, unions staged walkouts in protest of the new austerity measures. And the Swedish economy shrank in the final quarter of 2011, due to the crisis in the Eurozone.

In other news, the pop singer Erykah Badu caused a controversy in Malaysia when a photo was published in a Malaysian newspaper in which a tattoo reading “Allah” in Arabic was visible on her skin. The photo created an uproar, and despite apologies by the singer and the newspaper, her concert was cancelled.

Thanks to Andy Bostom, Esther, Fjordman, heroyalwhyness, Insubria, McR, Srdja Trifkovic, Steen, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

The 21st-century Counterjihad movement came late to the game. The work that we do today was anticipated more than twenty years ago by Karl Binswanger, a German scholar and expert on the Ottoman Empire. In a ground-breaking essay published in 1990, Dr. Binswanger analyzed the parallel Turkish society that was then emerging in German cities.

Andrew Bostom has commissioned a translation of this important work. The full text is below, preceded by Dr. Bostom’s introduction.

An Introduction to Karl BinswangerBy Andrew G. Bostom

Karl Binswanger was born in 1947, and studied at the University of Munich where he received a Ph.D in 1977 for the thesis, Investigations on the Status of Non-Muslims in the Ottoman Empire of the 16th Century, With a New Definition of the Concept “Dhimma”, a pioneering analysis of dhimmitude under Ottoman rule. He was a research fellow at the Institut fur Geschichte und Kultur des Nahen Ostens, Munich, from 1978-1980, and subsequently analyzed Islamic fundamentalism in Iran, Syria, and within Germany itself.

Binswanger’s seminal 1977 study examined the discriminatory and degrading conditions imposed upon non-Muslim “dhimmis” — predominantly Christians — subjugated under the Ottoman Turkish sharia in the 16th century. His analysis elucidated the key role played by the creation of Muslim “satellite” colonies during the Islamization of these vanquished Christian societies:

Geographic integrity is shattered by implanting Islamic nuclei.; The sectarian reference point of Dhimmi communities is removed, and further sectarian pruning occurs according to Islamic standards. The autonomy of Dhimmis is reduced to an insubstantial thing… They are driven out the moment that Islamic nuclei appear in the area. Dhimmis’ possession of their churches is granted. These are closed or razed the as soon as a mosque is established in their neighborhood…Regulations in the social area…demoralize the individual: [they] are consciously instituted for their degradation. The social environment of the Dhimmis is characterized by fear, uncertainty and degradation.

During 1990, Binswanger published three remarkably prescient essays on the (primarily Turkish) Muslim immigrant community of Germany. Binswanger opens his 1990 essay, “Islamic Fundamentalism in the German Federal Republic: Development, Inventory, Prospects,” with this ominous illustration:

”We reject reform and modernization. We will keep fighting until a godly order is established!” This quotation is not from Cemalettin Kaplan, the “Khomeini of Cologne”, but rather from Kadir Baran, the West German national vice-chairman of the “Idealist Associations” [“Idealistenvereine”], in other words, from a ‘Grey Wolf”. [u]ntil the Autumn of 1987 the federation’s ideology was purely nationalistic, chauvinistically Turkish. This is symptomatic of a development that one can observe among Turks in the Federal Republic of Germany, too, since Khomeini’s victory over the Shah: Islamic fundamentalism is on the march…

He then demonstrates how the strident re-affirmation of Islamic identity within Germany’s Turkish immigrant population engendered, “…an increasingly intense demonization of the culture, legal and social order of the host society: the image of Germans as enemies.” Central to this disturbing process was the inculcation of validating Islamic (i.e., Koranic) motifs which promote hostility to non-Muslims. Arguably the most accomplished (and easily the most unapologetic) scholar of how the Ottoman Turks progressively imposed the sharia on non-Muslims, Binswanger became alarmed by the obvious modern parallels to that phenomenon he observed in the behaviors of their contemporary Turkish descendants in Germany.

Twenty-one years later, the author and veteran television journalist Joachim Wagner published his analysis of the parallel Sharia-based Islamic “legal” system burgeoning in Germany, entitled Richter ohne Gesetz (“Judges without Laws”). Wagner’s alarming investigation — summarized in English during a two-part Der Spiegel series — demonstrates how what he terms “Islamic shadow justice” undermines Germany’s Western constitutional legal system, ultimately abrogating even German criminal law. Joachim Wagner’s contemporary study has lead him to conclude that even the ostensibly limited application of Sharia arbitration within Germany’s Muslim community nullifies the state’s Western conception of legal justice.

The problem starts when the arbitrators force the justice system out of the picture, especially in the case of criminal offenses. At that point they undermine the state… Islamic conflict resolution in particular, as I’ve experienced it, is often achieved through violence and threats. It’s often a dictate of power on the part of the stronger family.

All of Wagner’s findings and conclusions were anticipated two decades earlier in Karl Binswanger’s remarkably prescient essay from 1990, “Islamic Fundamentalism in the German Federal Republic: Development, Inventory, Prospects,” reproduced below.

“We reject reform and modernization. We will keep fighting until a godly order is established!”

This quotation is not from Cemalettin Kaplan, the “Khomeini of Cologne”, but rather from Kadir Baran, the West German national vice-chairman of the “Idealist Associations” [“Idealistenvereine”], in other words, from a “Grey Wolf”.[1] This is symptomatic of a development that one can observe among Turks in the Federal Republic of Germany too since Khomeini’s victory over the Shah: Islamic fundamentalism is on the march — even among those who were once called “Fascists”.

Yet this phenomenon has not come about by chance. Starting in the 1970’s it was preceded by a trend toward self-organization of the Turkish migrant workers that had little to do with Islamic fundamentalism. After Khomeini’s victory this trend intensified, and the autonomous organizations discovered Islam as their true ideology. What is sociologically remarkable here is the fact that the penchant for self-organization increases with the duration of residence in the Federal Republic.[2]

Ever since the beginning of the workers’ migration into the Federal Republic, Turks have joined local associations here, which at first served to promote social life. At the street level they appeared as coffee houses in which board games (such as Tavla) and cards were played, and in addition most of them had a modest library at their disposal. Only a few of these associations ran a prayer room.

Since the early 1970’s a threefold metamorphosis of these recreational clubs can be observed:

a substantial reorientation turning them into associations with a religious emphasis and an increase in mosque construction,

their consolidation in umbrella groups, and

the politicization of the latter (not least importantly as a repercussion of conditions in Turkey resembling civil war).

Essentially these are the points that make up fundamentalism of the Turks in Germany. This development accelerated and intensified in the 1980’s: an increase in the number of umbrella groups joined by the hitherto exclusively local associations — thus a consolidation process (cf. the Chronology in Table 1), also in the way in which Islam increased in importance as a factor in the discovery and preservation of their identity. Several criteria indicate this:

the rapidly increasing number of purely religious member-associations with a simultaneous dwindling of Nationalist member-groups,

an ideological pivoting of the segment that split off from the Idealists and now preaches ideas that are more Islamic than Nationalist,

the rapid construction at the federal level [staatlich] of the DITIB [acronym for the Turkish-Islamic Union of Institute for Religion], which “bought up” associations that previously had not yet belonged to one of the autonomous umbrella groups,

the broadening of the spectrum of the activities of the associations to areas traditionally dealt with by social services for foreigners,

radicalization, which can be proved at the organizational level for instance by the founding of the Union [the DITIB in 1984?] by Cemalettin Kaplan (“Khomeini of Cologne”), and the qualitative change from “everyday Islam” to letter-of-the-law fundamentalism,

the increasing politicization of the work of these associations, which no longer has anything to do with the slogan “equality of religion and politics” but rather extends to associations presenting their own party tickets for German foreigners’ commissions, and even to public recommendations to cast votes for a party in the homeland, and thus is a clear acknowledgment of its affinity to a specific political party in Turkey,

an increasingly intense demonization of the culture, legal and social order of the host society: the image of Germans as enemies.

Table I: Chronology of the founding of the most important associations

An interview with Paul Weston, the Chairman of the British Freedom Party, has just been published at the New English Review. Below are some excerpts:

A Future for Britain Free from Islamization: An Interview With British Freedom Party Chairman Paul Weston

by Jerry Gordon

The United Kingdom, or as Daily Mail pundit, Melanie Phillips calls it, Londonistan, has been mired in massive demographic change and concomitant Islamization brought on by its recent “open door” immigration policy. This was graphically evident in the July 7, 2005 London underground and bus system attack by four British Muslim suicide bombers who took the lives of more than 52 innocent victims and injured over 700. It was also reflected in the condoning of the more than 85 Shariah courts by the UK legal system and controversial Church of England head, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. Deeply disturbing has been the de facto creation of what former Bishop of Rochester Michael Nazir-Ali called “no-go areas” where native Britons are not welcome, especially if they happen to be homosexual or Jewish.

[…]

The British Freedom Party mission is: to defend and restore the freedoms, traditions, unity, identity, democracy and independence of the British people, to establish full sovereignty over all our national affairs by restoring the supremacy of the British Parliament, to withdraw from the European Union, to promote democratic British nationalist principles, to promote the social, economic, environmental and cultural interests of the British people and to preserve and promote the ancestral rights and liberties of the British people as defined in the British Constitution.

Prominent among the social and economic issues in the 20 point platform program of the British Freedom Party are:

Introduce a US style First Amendment guaranteeing Free Speech.

Leave the profoundly undemocratic European Union.

Abolish the Human Rights Act, which benefits only foreign criminals/terrorists.

Abolish all multicultural and equality quangos (quasi-nongovernmental organizations financed by the government yet acting independently of the government).

Halt and turn back all aspects of the Islamization of Britain, including Shariah finance.

Drastically reduce crime — criminals should fear the consequences of their behavior.

Repair the damage wreaked by the progressive educational establishment.

Paul Weston is the current chairman of the British Freedom Party. He identified himself as a “classical liberal” in an increasingly illiberal country. He resides in central London where he runs a property development/investment company. Weston stood for the UK Independence Party (UKIP) in the 2010 general election for the constituency of Cities of London & Westminster. He left the UKIP in 2011 due to the party’s failure to confront Islam. Weston assumed the chair of the British Freedom Party in Nov 2011 after ensuring that any founding officers with previous BNP connections stood down.

Weston has conferred with many leading members of the trans-Atlantic counter-jihad network at the Brussels Counter Jihad Europa Conference in October 2007. He discussed their importance to Britain and the West on the Gates of Vienna website. He maintains friendships and a common ideological agenda with Freedom Party leaders on the Continent. He is a self-described fan of the Hon. Geert Wilders of the PVV, The Freedom Party in The Netherlands. Weston spoke at the Amsterdam Free Speech Rally in October 2010 on behalf of the International Free Press Society.

In February 2012 Weston crossed the Atlantic and gave several acclaimed presentations in Nashville, New York and Toronto. (See Weston’s speech before a private audience in Nashville in the current NER edition). He was also recognized at a session of the Tennessee State legislature.

[…]

Weston has set the British Freedom Party on a course for fielding a party list of candidates in local council elections in 2012 to gain recognition for future general elections. While the Party’s expectations remain low about the outcome of these elections, the reception it has received has generally been favorable.

We had the good fortune to interview Weston prior to his leaving Toronto on the final leg of his return to the UK.

The following joke is based on a German-language version posted at Gegenstimme. Many thanks to JLH for translating it:

An old Arab living in Detroit has a vegetable garden that he would like to dig over, so he can plant potatoes. He is too old to face the task, and his only son lives in Paris. With sadness, he writes his son an e-mail.

Dear Ahmed,

I am very sad. I would like to dig over my garden so I can plant potatoes, but I am too old now. I am sure that if you were here, you could do it for me.

Your Father

He receives an e-mail in reply:

Dear Father,

Please, on no account touch the garden. It is where I buried “the object”.

Ahmed

The following morning, the old Arab’s house is surrounded by units of the US Army, the FBI and Homeland Security, who take possession of his back yard and dig up every millimeter of the garden, but find nothing. That night, the old man receives another e-mail:

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Mitt Romney won Republican presidential primaries tonight in both Michigan and Arizona. He edged out Rick Santorum, and left Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul far behind, enhancing his standing as the front-runner.

In other news, a German court has ruled that the fast-reaction committee set up to handle the euro crisis and oversee the European Financial Stability Fund is illegal and unconstitutional. It called for the German parliament to play a larger role in budgetary decisions.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Derius, Egghead, Fjordman, Insubria, Kitman, Nick, Srdja Trifkovic, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

How far must the owner of a hair salon go to provide a “reasonable accommodation” for devout Muslim women?

This news report from Quebec discusses the problem of female Muslim customers who insist that their hair be styled in seclusion, hidden away where males cannot possibly see them. The owner of the salon describes the difficulties involved, which may even include an architectural redesign of his building to cater to their needs.

Many thanks to Bear for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Below is the latest installment of the “Zombie Mohammed” case in Pennsylvania. In an interview on CNN, the judge who dismissed the charge against the offended culture-enricher says quite clearly that there are limits to free speech under the First Amendment. Basically, anything that insults Muslims is off-limits.

A Pakistani apostate now resident in Spain wants the Spanish government to ban the Koran. Below is the message we received yesterday from “Imran Firasat”, the owner of the Spanish website World without Islam:

I have formally asked the Spanish government through a legal petition for the prohibition of the Quran in Spain.

Many newspapers from Spain and some other European countries have published this news. I would like to request you to publish this very important and necessary news on your website please. We have to help each other in our fight against the Islamic dragon.

My petition calling for the prohibition of Quran is the sign of a grand revolution which we shall bring together against Islam. With this email I send you scans of the petition presented to the numerous institutions of Spanish Government. And below here I send you some links of media which published this news, and then after the links you can find the English translation of the news.

“Imran Firasat” A Pakistani citizen with legal residence in Spain as a political refugee has presented an official petition to the numerous institutions of the Spanish government calling for the prohibition of the Quran.

Imran has formally sent the petition to the President of Spain, Parliament of Spain, ministry of the exterior and also to the ministry of the interior. A copy of the petition is attached at the end of this news.

In the document presented to the government of Spain, Imran reveals 10 points which will support his petition for banning the Quran:

Yesterday we ran a series videos by El Inglés about the epidemic of “grooming and pimping” in the UK. His analysis focused on the persistently inadequate response by CEOP, the police agency charged with protecting children from abuse and prosecuting those who abuse them.

Fourteen videos are a lot to go through, so for readers with limited time we’ll cut to the chase. Below is the final video of the series, in which El Inglés draws his conclusions about what is happening in Britain, and discusses what is likely to happen in the not-so-distant future:

El Inglés adds this note:

This is a belated introduction to the videos of mine that the Baron posted yesterday. As at least some readers of Gates of Vienna will know, I have been writing essays for some time now under the pseudonym of El Inglés. Recently I concluded that the time had come to branch out somewhat in terms of medium of communication. Hence these videos.

I understand that the content of the videos and their number and length combine to create quite a demanding viewing experience. However, I am confident that those who make the effort to watch the entire series, and give the matters discussed therein some thought, will gain from them quite as much as they might have done in the past from having read my essays. Whether that is a lot, a little, or absolutely nothing, will be a matter for the individual to decide.

It would be futile to try and predict what the effects of these videos might be. But it seems to me that the utter lack of interest the British state has in maintaining its side of the social contract between government and governed is rapidly forcing events towards the violent breakdown of civil order I have predicted in the past. We might as well understand what is happening, and what is sure to happen throughout all Muslim-infested areas of Western, Southern, and Northern Europe in the near future.

We reported last week on the case of Jessie Sansone, a young Canadian father who was arrested, strip-searched, and held in a police cell because his daughter drew a picture of a gun in her kindergarten class.

The incident is still causing a lot of uproar in the Canadian media. The authorities are sticking to their guns so far — “The incident was unfortunate and stressful for all involved, but the school and the police had no choice; they followed the proper procedures.”

Below are two videos from Canadian TV about the Sansone case. The first is from Ezra Levant’s program, and features a discussion with Mr. Sansone’s lawyer:

The second video is a brief interview with a school board superintendent. Pay special attention to the word “co-parent”:

Monday, February 27, 2012

The German interior minister said that Greece should be encouraged to abandon the euro, and that the Greek economy would have a better chance of recovery if it did. Not long after he made his remarks he was rebuked by Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said she disagreed with him.

In other news, the Spanish government has said that it will have no objection if Scotland joins the European Union after it gains independence. Some Spaniards, however, are concerned that such a move would encourage separatist movements in certain Spanish provinces, such as Catalonia.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

As many of you know, our blog roll has needing culling for many a moon. The Baron hasn’t been able to fit that task into his already overburdened schedule, and I can’t sit here long enough to begin, much less finish such a long task. Doing it piece-meal made a shamble of my good intentions.

But to the rescue came a very nice fellow, the admin for OilPrice.com. Like many others, he asked if we’d be willing to add his blog’s name to the list. I explained the problem of our deadwood and the Baron’s rule of no-new-additions-until-a-time-of substantial-subtractions…

When I told Mr. Stafford about the situation, he volunteered to do the necessary house-cleaning on the sidebar. Remarkable offer! He was saying he’d clean up the whole enchilada. Amazing.

For a normal person, this probably isn’t a difficult job, just tedious. And if Mr. Stafford had been dealing with a normal person, his work would’ve been up on our side bar late last year. However, I am an Obstacle in the Universe so the changes have been sitting in the Baron’s hands while he waits for me to do this post. He won’t do any large changes without informing readers about them.

I’ve long forgotten how many blogs are in that whole listing, but I do know many have been out of business for a long time. Eventually, marshalling the remnants of my mind, I had the Baron tell me again what Mr. Stafford needed to do to create a list of dead blogs in a format Da B could use on our template. Then I passed this protocol from the Baron onto our heaven-sent volunteer. In short order he returned the completed spread sheet. In fact, it was a remarkable turn-around time when you consider that he and his assistant had to visit each URL and make a judgment as to whether it was still viable. If I remember correctly, our definition of a closed blog was one that hadn’t been updated in the previous nine months or so.

So back came the completed spreadsheet — about ninety out-of-date websites in all, plus new URLs for old websites that had migrated to new addresses. And then…and then, the Baron and Mr. Stafford have waited patiently for this post to be written. The same way our donors are kept waiting for their acknowledgements to arrive.

Please, as a favor to our donor for his time and energy, visit Oil Price. A separate page has a free sign-up for a Market Intelligence Report. Go to the page to sign up for breaking information on energy news. Free information, and it’s interesting. I know, because we get it in our email.

In the period I’ve been reading the Oil Price site, they’ve changed the ‘skin’ quite a bit. The new version is visually pleasing, and sections are divided clearly. I clicked on one main story, “The Reasons for High Oil Prices“, to find an author I hadn’t noticed before. Her essay contains information I’d not seen before. In addition to the usual reasons for high costs (like Iran’s perturbations) the author says something rather stunning (the emphasis is mine):

Between 1983 and 2005, world oil supply rose by 1.64% per year. If world oil supply had continued to rise at that rate, oil production would have been about 5 million barrels a day higher in 2011 than it actually was. The fact that oil production has remained relatively flat since 2005 is the primary reason oil prices have continued to rise, except during the 2008-2009 recession. (This recession was to a significant extent caused by high oil prices…)

The amount of the oil shortfall is huge. It is far more than the amount of oil taken off-line by Libya, and more than Saudi Arabia’s supposed spare production capacity. Given the high price of oil, most of the missing oil seems to be oil that we do not have production capacity for.

Did you know that? I didn’t. But I do know why our production capacity sucks. Because of Obama’s refusals here and efforts of the greenies at a global level. It goes back well before Obama, this scandal of the ageing infrastructure of oil refineries. But he has made it worse by demonizing the producers. He saves his tax breaks for businesses he likes. Oil and coal don’t make his list.

In looking at the list of previous essays at the bottom of her post, I found this one, explaining the absolute necessity for the future of an abundant supply of cheap oil. That declaration would seem to be a no-brainer, but we have a president who has other ideas. He thinks we should use a substitute for oil….we should burn algae.

I can’t say that we’re as well off as Uncle Scrooge — no money bin for us! However, after our Winter Fundraiser we’re able to sit on that see-saw without dropping like a stone and whacking our butts on the cold hard ground.

The generosity of our readers continues to amaze us. We see it every fundraiser, but still, it’s not something we can really get used to. How do y’all do it? Times are tough, and your willingness to give so much in the middle of a deep recession is truly inspiring.

Our gratitude goes out to everyone who sent in a gift. They hail from the following locations (as of 8:30 tonight):

Think about the resources that our adversaries can draw on. Not just the petrodollars that fund the Great Jihad itself, but the vast pool of wealth that the Left controls and contributes to aid its Islamic allies.

A donor in Sweden explained the situation succinctly in an email today:

Forget Thor — a servant of Allah was the one wielding the hammer tonight in Norway. A young drunken culture-enricher hijacked a bus using a hammer.

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer has translated a news report about the incident. He includes this note:

This article is about a bus hijacking in Skien (approximately 2.5 hours southwest of Oslo) which occurred a couple of hours ago. The hijacker has been described as a Palestinian male.

The driver of the bus was visibly upset after the incident, and I don’t blame him. In 2003 another bus driver, Audun Bøland, was stabbed to death by an Ethiopian asylum seeker.

There have also been other episodes of cultural enrichers going berserk on board public transportation in Norway. Most noteworthy are the Kato air incident in 2004, when an Algerian man tried to bring down a small-engine passenger plane in Northern Norway with an axe, and of course the tram incident in Oslo in 2004 when a Somali male stabbed one passenger to death and critically injured six others.

Regular readers are familiar with the writings of El Inglés, who has contributed numerous articles in the past to Gates of Vienna. For a complete list of his previous essays, see the archive listing in the last post in this series.

CEOP has obviously failed to execute its mandate with competence and due diligence. In the following videos El Inglés explains in some detail just exactly how it has failed, and what the likely consequences of its failure will be. Employing his customary meticulousness and attention to statistical detail, he pulls no punches in his examination of the failure of the social contract in the UK.

He says that he will write more on the same topic in this space at a later date, when he has time.

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre is dedicated to eradicating the sexual abuse of children. That means we are part of UK policing and very much about tracking and bringing offenders to account either directly or in partnership with local and international forces.

But our approach is truly holistic…

That last sentence does not inspire much confidence in CEOP. A cynical reader might consider “holistic” to be synonymous with “lacking in methodological rigor, suffused with trendy jargon, and extremely politically correct.”

In any case, the CEOP approach has failed.

Its report, “Don’t Leave Victims Out of Mind, Out of Sight”, was released last summer. The press release announcing it is here.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

The creator of a well-known British cartoon character made a little mistake when he went through security before boarding a flight at Gatwick Airport. As a response to seeing a fully-veiled Muslima being passed through screening without showing her face, he joked to a nearby security officer, “If I was wearing this scarf over my face, I wonder what would happen.”

Well, you can imagine what happened next. He was confronted by officials and the police were called and he was detained for an hour for questioning, thoroughly ruining his trip.

In other news, the European Central Bank is printing money easing liquidity again in response to the continuing sluggishness of the economy and in anticipation of a credit crunch.

Thanks to DT-N, Fjordman, HD, Insubria, JP, Kitman, McR, Nick, Nilk, Takuan Seiyo, The Observer, TV, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

For the last few years — beginning under the Bush administration, but continuing under Commander-in-Chief Barack Hussein Obama — the American military has been increasingly solicitous of and obsequious towards its Afghan “allies” and their thin-skinned Muslim sensibilities. Soldiers are advised in great detail on how to respect Islam. They have been prohibited from taking a leak in the direction of Mecca. They are trained to revere the Koran as if it were their very own holy book.

The recent Koran-burning incident at Bagram shows just how successful this doctrine has been. The name “Hussein” afforded our president no protection: he is being hanged and burned in effigy on the streets of Kabul and Kandahar. Afghan mobs are still rioting and shooting and burning things all over the country.

As reported in last night’s news feed, two American military advisers, a lieutenant-colonel and a major, were shot in the back of the head yesterday by an Afghan. This wasn’t some random attack on the street: the murders were committed in a heavily guarded area of a secure facility in the interior ministry building in Kabul, and the suspected gunman is a police intelligence officer:

AN AFGHAN police intelligence officer is reportedly being sought over the weekend killings of two senior US NATO officers at the Interior Ministry in Kabul amid fears violent protests over the burning of the Koran at a NATO military base would continue.

Abdul Saboor, 25, was the main suspect and had fled the ministry following Saturday’s attack, counter-terrorism officials told the BBC last night.

Saboor had served in several Afghan ministries and had worked at the Interior Ministry for some time, officials said.

He was reportedly responsible for security arrangements and had access to secure radio communication channels used by the ministries.

So how’s that COIN doctrine doing, fellows? Isn’t it about time to consider a different doctrine for Afghanistan?

Well, no.

A reader named HD sent us a tip about the latest analysis posted in The Stars and Stripes, the official news outlet of the U.S. military. As he says, “I can't let this one pass... the propaganda arm of the DOD has released the biggest piece of dhimmi garbage I have yet read on the S&S site.”

The article glosses over the murder of the two soldiers, saying only that “two U.S. officers who were shot Saturday by an Afghan worker”. Worker. Not “police intelligence officer”. Nothing to see here. Move along.

The rest of the report is just as bad. Notice that the author is an American journalist, but “Zubair Babakarkhail contributed to this report”. “Babakarkhail” is an exclusively Afghan surname, and Afghanistan is a 100% Muslim nation — except for those vile infidel soldiers and aid workers, of course.

In other words: The Stars and Stripes subbed out the research on the article to a representative of the enemy. Mind you, the U.S. military doesn’t consider Afghan Muslims the enemy, but rather our good friends and allies. However, a significant proportion of Afghanistan’s Muslims consider us their enemy, and we would be better off if our military leaders could acknowledge that and remember it.

KABUL — Afghans seethed for a sixth day over the burning of Qurans at a U.S. base, and as the violence persists and the death toll rises, an unanswered question pulses at the heart of the crisis.

How could this happen?

Now, anybody who reads this blog or other Counterjihad sites can tell them how this could happen: Afghanistan is a Muslim country ruled by sharia — we wrote it into their constitution, remember? — and sharia considers the presence of non-believers within Muslim-ruled territory to be an intolerable offense. The only way such infidels may be allowed to live under those circumstances is if they acknowledge the supremacy of Islam, act in the approved subservient fashion, and pay up.

Anytime they violate those rules — well, they might find themselves summarily shot in the back of the head.

But the S&S doesn’t examine the issue from that perspective. The article continues:

“The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms reports that Iranian authorities’ reaffirmed a death sentence for Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani for the sole reason of his refusal to recant his Christian faith.”

I hope it is merely sloppy writing that makes this condemnation so Islamic: Neither the death sentence nor its reaffirmation is condemned. These actions are okay. What is condemned is the reporting.

Here we are at the closing day for our first quarterly fund-raiser of 2012. If the trend in this one is indicative of the whole year, we will be okay. No, not just okay — we’ll be FINE! Both of us are by turns relieved, happy, and encouraged. Let them push up the electric rates by 40% in May [their five-year contract with a supplier runs out then and our electric co-op has been warning everyone]. I’m ready now, thanks to y’all.

Ever since the beginning of the end of our “rich” cycle, I had the sense that something would show up allowing us to continue Gates of Vienna. I presumed it would be another telecommute job, but that didn’t happen. No, I didn’t know what or when or who would permit us to continue, but there was — still is — a sense of being on the right path, even as it has been transformed from a “path” into a much larger thoroughfare. Meanwhile, I’m just as certain we’ll darn well know when this busy road begins to narrow and eventually trails off into the underbrush. Obviously it will be time to pick up another strand of our lives and do something else. But again, at this point, I haven’t any more idea what that would look like than I could have foreseen the transmogrification of Gates of Vienna. That still amazes me.

In this fundraiser, we’ve skirted around the edges of Frugal — it’s the new “in” thing, now that many are busted flat and finding the party’s moved on somewhere else. Surely there can be fewer things more bitter than paying for things one no longer wants or can afford to keep up. But so many people have turned it around and made a virtue out of not having; suddenly it’s less painful. Just as pinched, perhaps, but changing the frame changes the whole scene. I’ve seen a few people do that.

For us, having to buy something presents a problem. I mean, we’re not used to big purchases anymore. As one small example, I’ve been trying to find a reasonably priced bottom sheet for our bed because I have all these top sheets. The bottoms wear out because of the inordinate amount of time I spend there. And they don’t even mend well. However, the darn things only seem to come in sets — two sheets, two pillow cases — and those sets are waaay too much money. So I have all these flat sheets…and I’ve been thinking: people used to use flat sheets for top and bottom. So why not do the same thing? Simply go back to the ways they do it in hospitals. No contoured sheets there & Problem Solved.

A bigger example is trying to find a laptop of some sort that I could use while lying/sitting on the couch or bed. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time because my current laptop is too big and too heavy for that, though it’s a wonderfully serviceable computer. However, it doesn’t make a good bedmate.

A generous donor earmarked a large sum “for Dymphna”. Something to make my life easier, he said. Voilà! The money part of my equation was solved. But the nuts-and-bolts of an actual netbook, notebook — whatever — something light and easy to use, that's been harder. Too many choices! I’ve been all over the map with this. Looking at ultra lights (oh my heavens) or, at the other extreme, penny-pinching ideas about buying a used model of, say, a netbook. Or notebook. Our friend, Wally Ballou, has been giving helpful advice. Like not spending it all on the computer but putting some into peripherals. Is that the word, “peripherals”? And avoiding the headaches of used electronics.

I have become like Calvin when he found that catalogue full of cool stuff he didn’t know about but now can’t live without. I sympathize, Calvin. I mean, backlit keyboards! Who knew?? But WB says a little gooseneck attachable lamp works just as well. I have a feeling he’s right. My experience with “extras” is that they’re just something else that could break and I usually end up not using them.

In that vein, most of you are aware that we used part of our fundraising money in 2010 to buy a gas cooking range so that we’d have some other form of heat when the electricity failed. [In a wooded, rural area, the lines go down more frequently than they do elsewhere]. It was hard to find a gas cooker that didn’t use electricity to fire up the thing. Duh. But after some searching, we came across the bottom rung of the gas cooker options. And wonderfully for us, there were no added attractions and no electric anything. I don’t need another clock in the kitchen, or any of the doodads you find on modern stoves. As for the self-cleaning feature in our old electric range, I stopped using it when I found out how much it costs to get that sucker up to 800 degrees. And you still had to hand-wash the oven racks. Besides, if you didn’t pre-clean the oven, the burn-off was pretty intense. No, the only thing I miss is the glass door that lets you see how things are going inside the oven. But I don’t miss it enough to pay for it.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Two NATO officers were shot dead in the interior ministry building in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. The shooting is thought to be related to Afghan anger over the Koran-burning incident, and the two victims were Americans.

In other fallout from the Koran-burning incident in Afghanistan, an angry mob of Muslims desecrated Allied WWII graves in a military cemetery in Benghazi, Libya.

Thanks to BF, Fjordman, Insubria, JL, Nick, Paul Green, Steen, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

The video below is also from today’s EDL demonstration in Hyde, near Manchester. Tony Curtis has a few words to say, and then introduces a young local fellow named Jamie, who gives an impassioned speech on the damage that is being done to his community by violent Muslim gangs:

The English Defence League staged a demonstration today in Hyde, an eastern suburb of Manchester in the North of England. They came to town to protest the severe beating earlier this month of two young white boys by a Muslim gang. (For background on this incident, see this brief account from Casuals United, and a longer article from The Daily Mail.)

Needless to say, recent events at Liverpool Crown Court and in Rochdale also loomed large in the topics of speeches at the event. Here’s what EDL leader Tommy Robinson had to say (WARNING: Tommy uses some salty language here and there in his speech):

We reported yesterday on the Canadian man who was arrested, strip-searched, handcuffed, and thrown into a cell for a while because his four-year-old daughter drew a picture of her father holding a gun.

Ezra Levant launched into a magnificent rant on the topic last night on his SUN TV program. He pointed out the vile tactic of using a small child to destroy her father’s authority and undermine the institution of the family. In this he found a similarity to the Soviet practice of encouraging children to snitch on their ideologically impure parents.

We began our quarterly fundraisers out of financial necessity about three years ago. It was a scary prospect, jumping into the void like that — how could we possibly raise enough cash through blogging to get by on? Yet there were no other easily available alternatives, since Dymphna’s medical condition requires that I remain close to home.

Rather than take on a new ad provider and fight for the traffic necessary to bring in the per-page-impression revenue, we polled our readers and followed their preference instead: we asked those who find our work worthwhile to contribute as the spirit moved them, and in return we would post no ads at our site. Since then, with our readers’ permission, we have added a modest Amazon book ad for one of our friends and allies. But that’s it.

The response from readers was — and still is — an inspiration. How is it that so many people are willing to contribute money to people they don’t know, just to help keep a website going? Yet they do — we have eked out a living so far, helped along by a bit of book editing on my part, and more recently some new programming gigs.

The process reminds me of a fantasy I entertained when I was teenager. I was looking ahead to adulthood, and the prospect of holding a regular job did not appeal to me. Humdrum, boring, tedious — who wants to work for a living?

Suppose I could offer some product or service that every American wanted, and would be willing to pay a penny for. Why, I’d be a millionaire! If it was something really desirable, people might be willing to pay a dime apiece, and then I’d be fabulously rich.

All I had to do was think of something that everyone wanted, arrange to produce it, and then collect a penny or a nickel or a dime for it. What could be simpler?

Try as I might, however, I couldn’t come up with any ideas, and instead I had to enter the humdrum workaday world like everyone else. Until, that is, I decided to give up most of my income and become an artist instead…

Friday, February 24, 2012

The European Commission says it expects the Dutch economy to shrink by 0.9% this year. The EC also predicts that the current recession in the Eurozone will continue throughout 2012.

In other news, German soldiers were forced to abandon a military base in Afghanistan due to unrest in the wake of the Koran-burning incident. The Germans were planning on closing the base anyway, but they had to evacuate early as demonstrations continued in the area.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

This is one of the largest cases of its kind ever to come to trial. The total number of defendants in the case is said to be 47, eleven of whom are currently on trial. The behavior of the alleged perpetrators was so heinous and brutal, and the victims of rape and trafficking so young, that the trial looks to be a national sensation in Britain over the next few weeks or months.

What may transform the case from a sensation into the cause of mass unrest is the fact that the perpetrators were all Muslims of Pakistani descent, and their victims were all white girls, some of them as young as thirteen. To avoid inflaming the sentiments of “persons of British background”, the police had originally requested that the news media refrain from covering the trial. The blackout held for about two weeks, until reports from the courtroom finally broke into the MSM this past Monday.

As lurid and horrific details emerged from court testimony, the anger of the native British public became more and more evident in comments on news sites and in letters to the editor. Last night the anger moved beyond words into street violence in one of the neighborhoods where the grooming gangs had operated.

Before it appeared in the MSM, news of what was happening spread via Twitter, Facebook, the nationalist forums and UAF. Rumor had it that there were 300 demonstrators on the scene in Heywood; that a Pakistani take-away had been burnt to the ground; that angry young whites had blocked the street so that fire engines could not get through to fight the fire. When reports of the incident finally made it into a local media article, details of what happened were scant:

Disturbances have broken out in the Heywood area of Rochdale, police have confirmed.

Gangs of youths have congregated and it is believed Asian takeaway businesses have been targeted, sources said.

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said: “We became aware of congregations of men gathering in Heywood this evening. We are getting some reports of disturbances.

“There has been no reports of serious injuries. The owner of one takeaway restaurant has had his car attacked.”

This morning the media reports were more informative. Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:

Keep in mind that this trial is only just beginning. The rage that has smoldered for so long within the long-suffering English working class is ready to burst into open flame. It’s no wonder that the authorities wanted to muzzle the media — if this beast breaks its chains, there’s no telling how much damage it might do.

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer sends a translated account of muggers who increasingly target young ethnic Norwegians in a culturally enriched area of Oslo. The translator includes this explanatory note:

I have translated an article from Document.no concerning the numerous muggings taking place in Groruddalen, an area in the eastern part of Oslo with a high non-Western immigrant population.

I wonder what the capital is going to look like in 2025 when the immigrant population is set to rise to 50 percent of the overall population of Norway.

I’ve been told that Alaska has large areas uninhabited areas and a climate similar to Norway’s. Maybe non-socialist ethnic Norwegians should contemplate crossing the pond once again…?

In the last 12 months the local newspaper for Groruddalen, Akers Avis, has run several stories about the numerous muggings occurring in the valley. What characterizes these incidents is that they are brutal, and that the victims in the majority of the cases are youths. In an article published on February 24, the newspaper confirms what many of us have suspected for some time now: the number of cases where muggers are targeting young people is on the rise. Growing up in Groruddalen can be riskier than we would like to admit.

People are encouraged to be careful with alcohol in order to protect themselves, but in a civilized society people shouldn’t be afraid of being attacked simply for being intoxicated.

Akers Avis has contacted two of the victims:

“Five or six boys came and sat down next to me. One of them put his hand in my pocket and grabbed my iPhone. I reacted to this and asked him what he wanted. He told me to relax and put the phone in his own pocket.”

“When I tried to get it back he started threatening me and told me that he had a knife. I ran away and called the police,” the 15-year-old says in a message to the newspaper via an internet forum.

The same gang have committed several other muggings in other areas of Groruddalen, such as Grorud and Ammerud.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“He was obviously out to cause trouble. I was being threatened and discovered that several people had surrounded me. The 20 year old punched the man in front of him and managed to knock him down, but before he could do anything else someone knocked him down from behind. When he came to the robbers had left and taken his personal belongings.”

Nicolai Sennels reports that Danes are not all that keen on Turkey’s accession to the EU. I’m not sure how Danish opinion differs from that of other EU member states, but I expect opposition is fairly widespread across the EU.

Denmark: 70.5 percent says no to Turkey in EUby Nicolai Sennels

Turkey has 80 million Muslims and letting them into EU would be suicide. Islamonausea among Danes is clearly widespread — even on the extreme left.

70.5 percent of Danes say no to the idea that Denmark should use the EU presidency to “facilitate negotiations with Turkey with the aim to give Turkey EU membership.” Only 16.7 answered yes. And quite remarkably, there is a majority among all parties’ voters against Denmark’s promotion of negotiations with Ankara.

It is not surprising that only 3 percent of the voters from the Danish People’s Party support Turkish EU membership, while 90 percent are opposed. Or that 79 percent of those who vote for the Liberals oppose.

More noteworthy is that among Social Democratic voters there are nearly three opponents for every supporter of Turkish EU membership (66 percent versus 23). …

Only 21 percent of SF (socialists) voters and 24 percent of the Radicals (green and cultural relativist party) want Denmark to facilitate the way for Turkey, while 36 percent of Enhedslistens (Communists) voters answer yes.

STAMFORD — A North Stamford father trying to make his pre-teenaged son listen to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech last month was arrested on a warrant Wednesday and accused of striking his son with a coffee mug when the youth would not pay attention.

Mohamed Shohan, 49, of 55 Mather Road, Stamford, was charged with third-degree assault, disorderly conduct and risk of injury to a child. He was released after posting $5,000 bond and will be arraigned on the charges at state Superior Court in Stamford Thursday.

A Kitchener man says he was arrested and subjected to a strip search after his daughter drew a picture of a gun at school.

Jessie Sansone, 26, was taken into custody when he went to pick up his three children from Forest Hills public school on Wednesday.

His wife and their 15-month-old child were waiting for them at home.

Sansone said he was taken to the principal’s office, where police officers were waiting. His children were taken in by Family and Children’s Services, and he was taken to a police station in handcuffs.

Then, Sansone said, police went to his home and searched it.

Kitchener Police have not responded to requests for comment.

In a published report, the school says they notified the authorities because they were concerned children in the home had access to a gun.

Sansone told CityNews he was subjected to a strip search while in custody. Several hours later, he was released. No charges were laid and no gun was found in the home.

Sansone added that the allegations were especially hurtful because he had worked with the principal in the past. Sansone, who is a certified personal support worker and life-issues coach, often works at Kitchener schools, including Forest Hills.

Sansone admitted he was convicted of assault and attempted burglary five years ago, but he has never faced weapons charges.

What do you think — does this man’s record give the authorities probable cause to arrest him for what his daughter drew in that picture?

I couldn’t find many articles about this story in the media. But the SUN TV reporters weren’t the only ones outraged about the incident. Matt Gurney, writing for The National Post, had some choice words:

Here’s the map: we’re well into the first edition of 2012’s quarterly fundraisers and this post serves as the marker for the fifth day. And, no, I haven’t any idea how we got here so fast; last time I looked around seemed like we were just starting out. Taking my bearings again, I see we’re deep in the thickets of this here particular Garden of Forking Paths. As usual, my map bears little resemblance to Reality. The Baron is the navigator around here; I just follow along, enjoying the people and the scenery.

Fundraisers are fun, if taxing. I love all the emails and responses. The friendliness of our donors. The comments (though I do wish there were more of those). I treasure the messages on the PayPal notices. This time, a donor suggested her contribution go to socks for the Baron… an inside joke referring to my first post on this round, when I mentioned his middle class costume which he still dons for visits to Washington and the halls of power. Heh.

As it usually does, our theme for this bleg grew out of Long Discussions in the weeks prior to the launch date. The Baron’s temporary programming gig brought in enough money to cause our horizons to move a bit; we began to assess and reassess necessity vs. luxury. Our focus is mostly on keeping the house in good repair — it’s a fussy old cottage and a bit demented. One has to keep an eye on things or they get up to no good. But even here, we diverge on what is necessary versus whether-I-can-stand-our-kitchen-sink-one-more-year… (oops, ignore that one. It’s complicated.)

People who study such things say that an increase in income shows first in the grocery cart. Or eating patterns in general. With more money, people tend to move up the food chain, go out to eat more often, etc. And so we did move up, at least for a bit. But as the job ended, we worked our way back to a more familiar level. Restaurant-eating holds little charm when what you prepare for yourself mostly tastes better, but that brief spree on artichokes and asparagus was fun.

Frugality is a complex theme. The subjects we’ve picked out don’t even touch the surface of what appears to be a growing movement toward less-is-more. Try googling search strings containing “frugal” or “frugality”. Just the word alone brings up 6+ million hits. There’s even a wiki devoted to Frugality, complete with definition. It’s too bad they didn’t cover the etymology of the word, since this one is paradoxical: it derives directly from the Latin frux — fruit. That’s a clever little jump there, with a positive connection between the deliberative care of things and their fruitfulness. To be frugal is to thrive, to produce. It’s a bountiful word. And that’s how I think of it. Channeling the necessary into creative effort to live simply and well while still achieving our heart’s desire.

In our case, “heart’s desire” means keeping Gates of Vienna open. It is still a mysterious thing, how this blog has wandered and grown and thrived in ways we could never have predicted. The “long strange trip” of it all provides a foundation for optimism I wouldn’t have otherwise.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

In the first post I mentioned frugality in the context of character, choice, or chance. Then the Baron described his family’s inclinations to frugality when he was growing up. It was a choice for his family, and one he found congenial. For my family, frugality was the muddle we did to get through. Thus being frugal was grafted onto our living, eventually becoming second nature. My mother never quite adjusted; she always hoped that somehow the Laundry Fairy would show up and take that horrid pile away. Me? I was rather like Little Orphan Annie, bringing, if not order, at least some creative meals. Necessity made of me a cook and many years of practice burnished that into an effortless, creative pastime.

While considering the quality of chance in the context of my mother’s circumstances, I suddenly remembered her stories of the job she had as a young woman processing orders from all over the world for the Irish Sweepstakes. (If those young clerks arrived late for work in the morning, they were locked out of work for the day. Heavens, I’d have never fit in…)

Back then I believe lotteries had come to be forbidden by law in most places, including England and the U.S. But people bought those Irish tickets anyway; it was irresistible. And why not? Were we not raised on old fairy tales resonating with golden notions of sudden wealth?

Thursday, February 23, 2012

The latest accident statistics from ski slopes all over Europe indicate that Danes are 100 times more likely than Norwegians to run into a tree or otherwise injure themselves when skiing. Although not as proficient as Norwegians, the Swedes are also far more skilled on the slopes than their Danish cousins.

In other news, Canada is demanding that the EU shore up its European Financial Stability Facility — the euro-bailout fund — before the Canadian government makes any more contributions to the IMF to help the Eurozone.

Meanwhile, President Barack Hussein Obama has apologized to Afghanistan for the Koran-burning incident.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

A man arrested for threatening to machine gun police officers who stopped a meeting of an Islamic group at a Cardiff community centre was today jailed for eight months.

Mohammed Abdin of Clare Road, Grangetown was given four months for an admitted public order breach that evening and ordered to serve, in addition, a suspended sentence imposed for his involvment in an affray last year outside the American Embassy during a 10th anniversary memorial service for 9/11.

A judge was told this morning that in London last September he was heard to say: “In 10 or 15 years time when we rule, I’m going to hunt you down and then I’m going to kill you.

“I’m going to burn you to death ....... you are going to die”.

The police and council officials intended to serve a dispersal notice because of concerns the meeting going on had been organised by those affiliated to the outlawed Muslims Against Crusades, said prosecutor Jonathan Bushell.

He told Cardiff Crown Court: “There were 25 people inside, the group quickly became hostile and this defendant was the most aggressive.

“He shouted threats, asking what they were doing there, told them to put down their camera and lunged at one of them shouting ‘I’m going to chop your head off... I’m going shoot you with a machine gun’.”

The Pennsylvania State Director of American Atheists, Inc., Mr. Ernest Perce V., was assaulted by a Muslim while participating in a Halloween parade. Along with a Zombie Pope, Ernest was costumed as Zombie Muhammad. The assault was caught on video, the Muslim man admitted to his crime and charges were filed in what should have been an open-and-shut case. That’s not what happened, though.

The defendant is an immigrant and claims he did not know his actions were illegal, or that it was legal in this country to represent Muhammad in any form. To add insult to injury, he also testified that his 9 year old son was present, and the man said he felt he needed to show his young son that he was willing to fight for his Prophet.

The case went to trial, and as circumstances would dictate, Judge Mark Martin is also a Muslim. What transpired next was surreal. The Judge not only ruled in favor of the defendant, but called Mr. Perce a name and told him that if he were in a Muslim country, he’d be put to death. Judge Martin’s comments included,

“Having had the benefit of having spent over 2 and a half years in predominantly Muslim countries I think I know a little bit about the faith of Islam. In fact I have a copy of the Koran here and I challenge you sir to show me where it says in the Koran that Mohammad arose and walked among the dead. I think you misinterpreted things. Before you start mocking someone else’s religion you may want to find out a little bit more about it makes you look like a dufus and Mr. (Defendant) is correct. In many Arabic speaking countries something like this is definitely against the law there. In their society in fact it can be punishable by death and it frequently is in their society.

Judge Martin then offered a lesson in Islam, stating,

“Islam is not just a religion, it’s their culture, their culture. It’s their very essence their very being. They pray five times a day towards Mecca to be a good Muslim, before you die you have to make a pilgrimage to Mecca unless you are otherwise told you can not because you are too ill too elderly, whatever but you must make the attempt. Their greetings wa-laikum as-Salâm (is answered by voice) may god be with you. Whenever, it’s very common when speaking to each other it’s very common for them to say uh this will happen it’s it they are so immersed in it.

Judge Martin further complicates the issue by not only abrogating the First Amendment, but completely misunderstanding it when he said,

“Then what you have done is you have completely trashed their essence, their being. They find it very very very offensive. I’m a Muslim, I find it offensive. But you have that right, but you’re way outside your boundaries or first amendment rights. This is what, and I said I spent about 7 and a half years living in other countries. when we go to other countries it’s not uncommon for people to refer to us as ugly Americans this is why we are referred to as ugly Americans, because we are so concerned about our own rights we don’t care about other people’s rights as long as we get our say but we don’t care about the other people’s say”

But wait, it gets worse. The Judge refused to allow the video into evidence, and then said,

“All that aside I’ve got here basically. I don’t want to say he said she said but I’ve got two sides of the story that are in conflict with each other.”